Apple Valley

Re "Obama: Bill is 'beginning of the end' of downturn," Feb. 18 Now that the economic stimulus package has been signed into law, let's review what just happened. Every Republican congressman voted against it, and all but three Republican senators did the same. Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called it a "flawed bill" and a "special-interest, pork-laden, partisan, backroom deal that will do little to get our economy back on track." The Republicans now have a vested interest in this bill's failure.

Re "Newsletter's Obama illustration denounced," Oct. 17 How could a dunderhead like this Diane Fedele be in anybody's political party, not to mention a leader? The illustration circulated by Upland's Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, is reprehensible to decent people of any political party. Fedele, the club's president, apparently thinks it's sport to poke fun at an African American. Perhaps she thinks it's OK to be a part of a minstrel show in blackface too. Fair people even of her age and historical background know that this ugliness is unacceptable.

A big-rig truck driver was convicted Friday of vehicular manslaughter for slamming into the back of a minivan last year on Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo, killing three young siblings. Jorge Miguel Romero, 38, of Apple Valley pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter involving criminal negligence. He could face up to three years in jail, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 14. Romero was accused of driving at an unsafe speed when his tractor-trailer slammed into the minivan, killing Ladera Ranch siblings Kyle Coble, 5, and his sisters, Emma, 4, and Katie, 2. He also was accused of being inattentive, not keeping enough distance between his truck and stopped traffic, and hitting the brakes too late to stop.

Re: [“Go Ahead, Hold It In,” July 28]: Half a century ago, when I was a student at UCLA taking psych courses, there were psychologists who thought that talk therapy in general was ineffective and that repression might actually be a useful way to deal with unpleasant memories. Some challenged talk therapists to demonstrate scientifically that anyone was ever helped by talk therapy. Such a view then, and even now among many, was heresy deserving of mockery, if not excommunication, defrocking and banishment from the priesthood of therapy.

The soldier staggered, wounded and bloody, into an Apple Valley mini-mart last weekend claiming to be a victim, shot and robbed while on leave from Iraq. Now investigators say it was all a ploy: They believe that Army Pfc. Matthew Myers, 20, of Apple Valley arranged for a friend to shoot him so he could avoid returning to Iraq. Myers first called 911 about 9:30 p.m. Sunday from the AM/PM convenience store at 15333 Rancherias Road, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.

Re "Early birds miss the point," Opinion, Jan. 31 We voted by mail one week ago. There has been nothing said or done since to make us wish we had waited. The obnoxious television ads with their half-truths, lies and innuendo would not change the minds of intelligent voters who had studied the voter's guide that was sent out by the state. As far as the candidates not finishing their race, so be it. Because our votes for the presidential candidates were cast based on our study of their past actions, practices and moral and fiscal integrity, these cannot be altered by ads that talk about everything else.

Two men charged in the murder of two youths at an abandoned bunker in the Mojave Desert earlier this month pleaded not guilty Tuesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court. Collin Lee McGlaughlin, 19, of West Covina and David Brian Smith, 18, of Covina, appeared in dark green jumpsuits, wearing shackles on their arms and legs. The front row of the packed courtroom was filled by the families of the victims, 16-year-old Bodhisattva Sherzer-Potter of Silver Lakes and 18-year-old Christopher Cody Thompson of Apple Valley.

For more than 20 years the bunker has stood alone in this remote stretch of desert, a crumbling relic from another era with graffiti-scarred walls, hidden alcoves and a warren of dark hallways leading nowhere. Gaping holes puncture the concrete roof, creating 30-foot drops to the floor below. Thousands of bullet casings crunch underfoot. Shattered glass forms a jagged carpet inside and out.